Elliott ODonnell - Animal Ghosts: Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter

If human beings, with all their vices, have a future life, assuredlyanimals, who in character so often equal, nay, excel human beings, havea future life also.

Those who in the Scriptures find a key to all things, can find nothingin them to confute this argument. There is no saying of Christ thatjustifies one in supposing that man is the only being, whose existenceextends beyond the grave.

Granted, however, merely for the sake of argument, that we have someground for the denial of a future existence for animals, consider theinjustice such a denial would involve. Take, for example, the case ofthe horse. Harming no one, and without thought of reward, it toils forman all its life, and when too old to work it is put to death withouteven the compensation of a well-earned rest. But if compensation beGod's law,as I, for one, believe it to beand also the raisond'tre of a hereafter, then surely the Creator, whose chief claim toour respect and veneration lies in the fact that He is just andmerciful, will take good care that the horsethe gentle, patient,never-complaining horseis well compensatedcompensated in a goldenhereafter.

Consider again, the case of another of our four-footed friendsthe dog;the faithful, affectionate, obedient and forgiving dog, the dog who isso often called upon to stand all sorts of rough treatment, and is shotor poisoned, if, provoked beyond endurance, he at last rounds on hispersecutors, and bites. And the catthe timid, peaceful cat who ismauled, and all but pulled in two by cruel children, and beaten to ajelly when in sheer agony and fright it scratches. Reflect again, on thecow and the sheep, fed only to supply our wants; shouted at and kicked,if, when nearly scared out of their senses, they wander off the track;and pole-axed, or done to death in some equally atrocious manner whenthe sickening demand for flesh food is at its height.

And yet, you say, these innocent, unoffendingand, I say,martyredanimals are to have no future, no compensation. Monstrous!Absurd! It is an effrontery to common sense, philosophyanything,everything. It is a damned lie, damned bigotry, damned nonsense. Thewhole animal world will live again; and it will be manspoilt,presumptuous, degenerate manwho will not participate in another life,unless he very much improves.

Think well over this,you who preach the gospel of man'spre-eminence;you who prate of God and know nothing whatsoever aboutHim! The horse, dog, cat,even the wild animals, whose vices,perchance, pale beside your own, may go to Heaven before you. TheSupreme Architect is neither a Nero, nor a Stuart, nor a clown. He willrecompense all who deserve recompense, be they great or smallbiped orquadruped.

It is to testify to a future existence for animals and to create a widerinterest in it that I have undertaken to compile this book; and myobject, I think, can best be achieved in my own way, the way of theinvestigator of haunted places. The mere fact that there aremanifestations of "dead" people (pardon the paradox) proves some kind oflife after death for human beings; and happily the same proof isavailable with regard a future life for animals; indeed there are asmany animal phantasms as humanperhaps more; hence, if the human beinglives again, so do his dumb friends.

Be comforted then, you who love your pets, and have been kind to them.You will see them all again, on the soft undying pasture lands of yourElysium and theirs.

Be warned, youyou who have despised animals, and have been cruel tothem. Who knows but that, in your future life, you may be as they arenowin subjection?

My task in writing this book has been considerably lightened by theextreme courtesy and kindness of Mr. Shirley, Mr. Eveleigh Nash, and theProprietors of the Review of Reviews, in allowing me to make use ofextracts and quotations from their most valuable works.

ELLIOTT O'DONNELL.

In opening this volume on Animals and their associations with theunknown, I will commence with a case of hauntings in the Old ManorHouse, at Oxenby.

My informant was a Mrs. Hartnoll, whom I can see in my mind's eye, asdistinctly as if I were looking at her now. Hers was a personality thatno lapse of time, nothing could efface; a personality that made itselffelt on boys of all temperaments, most of all, of course, on thosewholike myselfwere highly strung and sensitive.

She was classical mistress at L.'s, the then well-known dame school inClifton, where for three yearsprior to migrating to a Public SchoolIwas well grounded in all the mysticisms of Kennedy's Latin Primer andSmith's First Greek Principia.

I doubt if she got anything more than a very small salarygovernessesin those days were shockingly remuneratedand I know,poor soul, shehad to work monstrously hard. Drumming Latin and Greek into heads asthick as ours was no easy task.

But there were times, when the excessive tension on the nerves provingtoo much, Mrs. Hartnoll stole a little relaxation; when she allowedherself to chat with us, and even to smileHeavens! those smiles! AndwhenI can feel the tingling of my pulses at the bare mention ofitshe spoke about herself, stated she had once been youngadeclaration so astounding, so utterly beyond our comprehension, that wewere rendered quite speechlessand told us anecdotes.

Of many of her narratives I have no recollection, but one or two, whichinterested me more than the rest, are almost as fresh in my mind as whenrecounted. The one that appealed to me most, and which I have everyreason to believe is absolutely true, is as follows:I give it asnearly as I can in her own somewhat stilted style:

"Up to the age of nineteen, I resided with my parents in the ManorHouse, Oxenby. It was an old building, dating back, I believe, to thereign of Edward VI, and had originally served as the residence of noblefamilies. Built, or, rather, faced with split flints, and edged andbuttressed with cut grey stone, it had a majestic though very gloomyappearance, and seen from afar resembled nothing so much as a huge andgrotesquely decorated sarcophagus. In the centre of its frowning andmenacing front was the device of a cat, constructed out of blackshingles, and having white shingles for the eyes; the effect beingcuriously realistic, especially on moonlight nights, when anything morelifelike and sinister could scarcely have been conceived. The artist,whoever he was, had a more than human knowledge of catshe portrayednot merely their bodies but their souls.

"In style the front of the house was somewhat castellated. Twosemicircular bows, or half towers, placed at a suitable distance fromeach other, rose from the base to the summit of the edifice, to theheight of four or five stairs; and were pierced, at every floor, withrows of stone-mullioned windows. The flat wall between had largerwindows, lighting the great hall, gallery, and upper apartments. Thesewindows were wholly composed of stained glass, engraved with everyimaginable fantastic designimps, satyrs, dragons, witches,queer-shaped trees, hands, eyes, circles, triangles and cats.